Silver Lining
by Ettore
Summary: When messing with the Samsara, it's obvious that things would change. But it changed too much, and now they are Outer beings. Not bound by the paths of reincarnation, they never existed in this Cycle. Now they have a second chance at a normal life, a life of peace. But Fate has different plans. AU
1. Chapter 1

He shouted at them, "Let me die with him this time! That's where it keeps going wrong!"

"You know for beings outside the realm, resurrection is impossible. This death will be your final." the voice echoed all around him.

"I know. But we've suffered through too much already. The reason he keeps resurrecting to a life of pain is because I didn't die that day." he said somberly.

"Are you sure of this?"

"You already know. You taught me, remember?"

"Then you will go back. And you will finish it the way it was intended."

* * *

.

They stared at each other from across the valley. Each standing at the base of a statue, they glared at each other. One with envy, one with betrayal.

Sasuke's eyes widened as he seemed to remember something. Then they softened as he looked at his closest friend. Someone who, knowingly or not, remained his friend through different lives.

Naruto noticed the look, and thought he might've finally gotten through to Sasuke, but then the black haired boy's eyes hardened and the hideous wings unfurled from his back.

Sasuke prepared his Chidori in his hand, and Naruto prepared the same attack. They jumped, hands reaching out for their target.

A heart.

A forehead.

Just as Naruto was about to lay a cut into his forehead protector, Sasuke flapped his wings at the last second. Naruto's Chidori-covered hand tore through his heart at that moment, and Sasuke impaled Naruto with his own arm. Naruto looked on in confusion, but then Sasuke's next words eased his pain, even if he didn't know why.

"We can rest now, it's okay, it's over."

Naruto smiled in content, even as they fell deeper into the lake and their vision was blurred.

Sasuke smiled and, even though they weren't visible, he cried tears of joy.

Their ultimate finality, their absolution, had come.

* * *

.

It was a party at Ino Yamanaka's house. People were celebrating for the purpose of celebrating. Some because they had survived another mission, and some because they just felt like it. The group of 10 friends were sitting in a group, as they were laughing and conversing with each other.

The original point of the party was Ino's twentieth birthday, but people just fell into their own thing, and nobody minded that.

Hinata Hyuga sat with them, but felt guilty for having it now. Every once in a while she got this sense like there was something missing, like there was someone who was supposed to be there, with her.

"Oooohhh, look at them. Those guys are hot!" came Ino's voice. When Hinata looked over to where she was pointing, her heart stopped.

There were two older men, both with brown hair, but one had it long, and the other had it short. Next to them were two guys their age, one with black hair in a peculiar style, and one with blond spiky hair and a bright smile. All of them had silver eyes.

They were certainly all interesting, but it didn't compare to what she felt when she looked at the blond one. He had a presence that just attracted her. He was looking around the house, as if he was looking for someone, and then his silver eyes fell on her, and he instantly smiled even wider. He walked over to her and asked, "Would you like to dance?"

She widened her eyes in surprise before hesitantly accepting his outstretched hand. They walked to where other couples were dancing, and they began to fall in rhythm with the music as they danced. Hinata was so lost in confusion and attraction that she didn't even notice when she said, "I missed you."

She heard him chuckle and say, "I missed you too, Hime."

That statement brought her back to reality and she realized what she'd said. She didn't even know this man! What had posessed her to say that? And why had he responded like that?

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that." said Hinata.

"Yes you did." he said.

Now she was really confused, "I'm sorry?"

"I... apologize. You look and act so much like one of my closest friends, I won't do it again." he said.

She cocked her head. He noticed her expression and said, "She is... gone. The woman who was my best friend has already passed away."

Now she felt bad. Kami, why was this man affecting her so much? She didn't even know him. Speaking of which, "Umm, I don't know your name. Mine is Hinata Hyuuga."

"Naruto."

No last name? Well that wasn't really all that uncommon, Tenten never used her last name, if she had one. She was an orphan though.

The music started to kick up. Naruto grimaced, "And now they've ruined what could have turned out to be a splendid conversation. Want to take a walk? It's the middle of the night, so there won't be many people out."

She smiled hesitantly, "I would like that very much."

As they made their way to the exit, the Konoha 10 were all staring at them in surprise and a little concern. They looked back at the other men who were with Naruto.

They were smirking.

* * *

.

Hinata and Naruto had been conversing for some time now, and were enjoying each others company.

Naruto narrowed his eyes in the direction of a bush to his left, and Hinata noticed.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked before silently activating her Byakugan. She looked suprised before looking back at Naruto with a bit of hurt.

A shadow shot across the ground and connected to Naruto's. He saw it but didn't bother dodging.

Ino jumped out and aimed a unique hand sign at him. Her eyes glazed over and she slumped for only a split second before she was aware again. She looked at him in fear, "Guys! My Mind-Transfer wont work! It's like he just reflected it!"

Naruto twisted his heel and kicked outward, breaking the shadow's hold over him. Shikamaru jumped out from the bush and jumped in front of Hinata holding a kunai and panting slightly.

Naruto looked at them with a bored and annoyed expression, his silver eyes glowing fiercely.

Shikamaru glared back, "What do you want with Hinata?"

"Well I _had_ wanted to just keep talking, but just like the music in there something had to ruin the mood." Naruto said.

"Don't give me that, you are obviously not just here for a date. Do you just want the Byakugan? Is that it?" Shikamaru shouted. Hinata looked at Naruto with steel after those words.

"If I wanted the Byakugan I would have taken it. Those eyes don't mean anything to me, it's the person who has them that does." Naruto replied.

"What's so special about Hinata?" Shikamaru asked.

Naruto bristled, "What isn't special about her? She was there to save me from Pain when he meant to destroy me, even though she was no match for him. She just kept getting up, over and over again as Pain beat her down. She refused to yield to him, even as I screamed at her to get away. She said she was... being selfish." He looked down sadly, before he looked up again, "She died from her wounds that night, and even though I was able to destroy Pain for what he did, it didn't BRING HER BACK!" A massive shockwave erupted from him, shattering all if the windows in the area.

He calmed down before looking straight into Hinata's eyes, "I know what you are going to say. 'You're thinking of someone else, I didn't do that. I don't even know you.'" He smiled wistfully, "This instance of you does not know me, but I know you very well. Your birthday is December 27th, and because of that you enjoy the winter. You like cinnamon buns almost as much as I like ramen, it's the one food you let yourself 'eat impolitely' as you would say. Your favorite word is 'confidence', and you love pressing flowers. You would sometimes teach me the meanings of different flowers on the missions we had together. I loved learning from you, and those healing ointments you made were wonderful. You were always there for me. Now, I have an opportunity to make up for my failures. And I will NOT let my brothers, or you, down."

And with a muted thrum, he disappeared in a flash of white light.

* * *

 **Alright, this was a dream. No seriously, I had this in a dream, and I wrote it down as fast as I could, because it was fading. Unfortunately I only remembered the ending, and since I don't like beginning with the end in mind, I decided to change some things and make it the beginning.**

 **So tell me what you think.**

 **Oh! DO NOT INSTALL WINDOWS 10 IF YOUR HARD DRIVE IS OVER HALF FULL! It ruined my OS and even after I rolled back to 8.1 it took it's problems with it. I had to Image and factory reset my laptop, permanently erasing 909 Gigs of movies, games, music and pictures. That's almost a Terabyte of stuff that I lost.**

 **Back to the point, I'm moving right now and free time is scarce, but expect chapter 2 of One within the next couple days.**

 **This was also my first attempt at emotional writing.**


	2. Chapter 2

.

Minato Namikaze sat at his desk in his office and listened to Shikamaru's report on the incident that occurred in the Shopping District.

"He had a ridiculous amount of power, as he was not only able to defuse Ino's Mind Transfer and my Shadow Mimic, but he shattered the windows in the area simply from getting angry, and was seemingly able to use Space-Time techniques." Shikamaru relayed, "He also had an inordinate amount of interest in Hinata Hyuuga, and seemed to know things about her that not even we knew."

Minato frowned, the lines around his mouth deepening, "This is concerning. There should be no way that the amount of chakra wasn't detected."

Shikamaru raised a brow, "What do you mean, Sandaime-sama?"

"Even though a good portion of the village heard what you described, most of the shinobi force thought the sound was from chemical explosives. Nobody detected any chakra whatsoever. Not even the sensors felt anything." Minato said, leaning back in his chair.

Shikamaru's eyes widened, "How is that possible? There was enough chakra in that blast to shatter the windows in a two-block radius. Even an explosive tag would have been felt by our sensors."

Minato nodded, "Exactly. The only explanation I can think of is that it wasn't chakra."

"Wasn't chakra? Aside from youki, what could it be? And even youki is a form of chakra. That _definitely_ would've been sensed." Shikamaru said.

Minato stared at his desk, lost in thought.

"What did he say exactly, do you remember his exact words?" Minato asked.

"I can tell you myself if you want."

Minato jumped over his desk, and Shikamaru got into a combat position.

The curtains were pushed aside, revealing Naruto sitting cross-legged on the windowsill somehow, eating a bowl of ramen.

"How did you get in here!?" Minato shouted. At his shouting several ANBU stormed into the room. They saw Naruto and attempted to attack him, but they were blasted back with a white shockwave. The same one from yesterday.

Naruto finished chewing, then swallowed and set it on the windowsill. He got up and squinted while looking at Minato, as if trying to figure something out.

"Man, I never thought I'd see the day that you were _old._ You were still looking young as ever last time I saw you, though that might be because you looked like the day you died. I suppose it's reasonable that I wouldn't see you age. After all the only times I can remember seeing you were when we were in the seal and when you got resurrected as an Edo Tensei." Naruto said, speaking more to himself by the end.

Minato looked at him guardedly, completely confused, "I'm sorry, who are you? I've gathered that you are the same person from the Shopping District yesterday, but that doesn't help much."

Naruto grinned and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Oh yeah, sorry about that. Kinda got carried away, ya know?"

Minato narrowed his eyes, "Who are you and what do you want? More importantly, why are you impersonating my wife?"

"Huh?" Naruto asked, "Oh! I forgot that Mom says that kind of stuff too."

Everyone's eyes bugged out. That was the last thing anyone would've expected.

Minato recovered first, surprisingly, "You must have me confused for someone else. I have no children, in fact I can't. I'm sterile, or so the doctors tell me." Shikamaru and the ANBU all sweatdropped when they heard their Hokage readily admit to such a thing.

"Huh, must be another Compliance." Naruto muttered, "Well I was never the patient one. My brothers tell me I should ease everybody into it a bit more, but it's more fun this way."

Naruto sat down in the Hokage's chair, and lifted up the short sleeve of his shirt. On his shoulder was the specific seal given to Konoha ANBU.

"I was Hokage once too, or so my brothers say. Though I think they are just comforting me because I died before I was able to become Hokage in the last Samsara. I only remember that one and the one before, so I only remember becoming an ANBU." Naruto said, "So, you get the crash course to Outer beings. In my most recent cycle I was born Naruto Namikaze, you got the name from one of Ero-Sennin's books. The first one, 'The Tale of the Gutsy Ninja'. That one is still my favorite. Anyway, after Kurama was ripped out of Mom's seal, you had to resort to sealing him into me with the Reaping Death Seal. You died from your wounds, and Mom died because of the combination of her wounds, holding Kurama down with her Chakra Chains, and the stress of him being ripped out of her."

Minato listened intently, even though this went against everything he remembered. Naruto didn't seem to be lying, so that meant at least he believed it.

"Afterwards Sarutobi-jiji changed my name to Uzumaki, because you had made so many enemies in the Third War. You were the Yondaime then, because Hashirama Senju was the Shodaime. That's another Compliance, so I'm not going to talk about that. Anyways, because Kurama had killed so many people when he was forced to attack the village, I was unwillingly made their scapegoat. I grew up in this village hated for the deaths that Kurama caused. Most of the time the villagers would just ignore me, unless of course it was my birthday or I dared to make eye contact. Under either of those circumstances they'd form a mob and try to kill me. Most of your ANBU were useless, as it turned out the only one who would protect me properly was Itachi."

Minato held his hands up, "You mean to tell me that this village, this very place, discriminated and assaulted against my own son because of something out of his control? That's crazy, and insulting. I know the citizens of this village. They would never do something like that! And why the hell would Kurama attack us? The Bijuu are our allies!"

"You may know your people, but you obviously don't know humans. Even you, with enough loss, would act the same. Anyway, a lot of different shit happened that I'm not going to tell you about, but the important part was that I died. Several times actually." Naruto said. He held up his hand to forestall questions, before continuing, "The Samsara, in basic terms, is the cycle by which human souls are _re_ cycled. But contrary to popular belief, you aren't reincarnated as someone or something else. The process goes like this; the world is created, the souls from the previous cycle are placed into the new world in the exact time they were born in the previous cycle, with a few exceptions, these new humans proceed to live through the exact same lives they did before without memory of the previous Samsara, and nothing changes until the world ends, rinse, and repeat." he gestured at himself with his thumb, "Unless a Gedo is taken. For some people, especially ones who influenced the fate of a previous cycle, minute changes in their lives can have drastic repercussions. The powers that would like the cycle to remain as unchanged as possible do not like that, and offer the person a Gedo. A Gedo, or Outer Path, is a road, a string of events that a person can take to become an Outer Being. Now, the person doesn't know about it. The actions are taken subconsciously and sometimes do not succeed. After several cycles, I finally fulfilled the requirements to become an Outer Being. I am outside the realm of Samsara, and thus I can neither die, nor am I supposed to be able to interact with anyone inside the cycle." he grinned and got up from the chair, grabbing his ramen from the windowsill.

Minato, walking around to sit in his chair, questioned, "Supposed to?"

"Well, the bastard Shinigami didn't tell me about the fact that being an Outer Being means roaming around every cycle unseen, unheard, and unnoticed. You can watch, but you can't do anything. That pissed me off." Naruto took a bite, speaking after he was finished, "It took some work and more than a little skill, but I managed to pull us through. Originally I was just trying to pull Sasuke and myself through, but I unintentionally took Indra and Asura with me. Their souls were so similar to Sasuke's and mine that they sorta came with. Anyway, because we all got here, the first generation of Indra and Asura and the last generation of myself and Sasuke were erased from the Samsara. Along with everything in between. This goes into what a Compliance is. Sasuke and I were Incarnation Matches with Indra and Asura, but we weren't the first. There were several others, but they were erased. Because they weren't Outer beings at the time they were erased however, they're gone for good, and good riddance." Naruto scowled, "Hashirama was a retard who's power was only matched by his naivety, and I am not even going to get started on Madara. Long story short, the reason why you've only had one World War instead of four is because they weren't there to cause them. That's what a Compliance is."

"If you just got here, then how do you know all of that?" Minato asked, head spinning as he tried to comprehend all of this.

"I've been here since this cycle started." Naruto said, "But it took a lot of power gathering to finally break through completely. The last ten years to be exact."

Minato sighed, "Then I guess the most important question is; What will you do?"

Naruto laughed, "That's the beauty! I can actually _live_! I don't have to worry about wars or being the 'child of prophesy'. I have absolutely no idea as to everything I'll do, because I don't have an enemy. I can tell you this though. The first thing I want to do is settle down here, and get to know Hinata again. My life robbed me of intuition before and I didn't know how she felt until she was gone. I am **not** going to allow that to happen again. I have watched and her life did not improve from the last cycle. She has had nobody to help her through the harrows that the Hyuga forced on her. That clan is still so stupid." he turned to look Minato in the eyes, "But the answer you want is, I will live here in Konoha and defend it."

Shikamaru stepped forward, "Everything you said sounds-"

"Like the most troublesome thing you've ever heard? And you don't think you can believe me?" Naruto asked with a grin.

Shikamaru was silent for a moment before groaning and stepping back, "Nevermind, I believe him."

Minato stared at Naruto for a moment, "Would you like to become a shinobi of the Leaf? You said you wanted to live normally, so I'll ask instead of conscripting you."

"I couldn't live any other way." Naruto chuckled, "I barely know how to use a washing machine, as if I could be anything else."

* * *

 **.**

 **Sorry I'm sorta in a funk right now, but this chapter was mostly to give information about the world I thought up.**

 **Let me know what you think. I might actually be updating Rinne for once! I have neglected that poor story.**


End file.
